


for every action a reaction

by genesis_frog



Series: a vine of ivy's pushing her way through (widobrave week 2020) [4]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Background Relationships, Cons, F/M, Families of Choice, Found Family, Gen, Relationship Study
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-25
Updated: 2020-03-25
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:48:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23177953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/genesis_frog/pseuds/genesis_frog
Summary: For all their past as conmen, they don't pull many tricks anymore.(widobrave week day 4: favorite moment/quote)
Relationships: Nott & Caleb Widogast, Nott/Caleb Widogast, The Mighty Nein & Nott & Caleb Widogast
Series: a vine of ivy's pushing her way through (widobrave week 2020) [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1666243
Comments: 2
Kudos: 28





	for every action a reaction

Caleb and Nott do not pull their cons around the Mighty Nein, for the most part. Not for shame or for fear, but because their cons don’t hold much purpose anymore. They have four to five other people to protect them, to help them provide for each other; gone are the days of having to fool the gullible for coin and bread.

Then, of course, they end up in a fight with goblins (which is traumatic enough on its own; but there’s no way it could be the clan she knew, so she takes a breath and finds new resolve). Caleb casts Slow, and gets a javelin to the torso for his trouble. In a moment of fear and impulse, she screams “modern literature!” and fires a crossbow bolt into Caleb’s side, piercing his book in the middle of its cover. He drops to the ground. She turns and speaks to their enemy as if she is one of them, and it makes her feel sick, but if it gets them away from the others, away from him, so help her she would do it.

Caleb and Nott are a pair of organisms in symbiosis; their blood beats to the same rhythm. This is born out of survival, out of desperation, out of a tentative trust. They do not detangle, but slowly, they bring the Mighty Nein into their arms as well -- charming Jester steals both of their hearts, Beauregard gains their loyalty in Zadash; Mollymauk earns a gilded throne in their memories, Caduceus a seat at their table; it takes until Fjord is powerless and Yasha’s repentance that they are both fully accepted by the two. With so many connections, so many ways to be interdependent, they don’t _need_ to cling so close to their schemes. So they don’t.

After months with the Mighty Nein, they’re in an archive in Uthodern, with the Scribewarden breathing down their necks. Caleb finds a magic thing and wants it (and what magic things Caleb wants, Nott will get) and he offers his book to Nott with the explanation that it’s nothing like your average modern literature, and Nott panics and decides to be the distraction. “You know what this is for!” she screams and shoots him, and this time she draws blood. He topples to the ground and she starts to improvise some backstory for this while Jester snags the page. Of course, Nott leaps to marriage problems, and Beau leaps on Nott, and when told to leave Nott calls herself his wife, and it’s all fun and games until Caleb and Nott are both banned from the Vellum Steeple. And there’s some regret, in that they’ve been blocked out of a house of knowledge, and there could be useful information in there, but Caleb doesn’t seem too bothered, so Nott tries to not be, too.

Of course, that went to shit, but as a modern variant of their cons, it only succeeded because they had a third person - Jester - to do the actual thing that needed doing, and they needed Beau there to play cleanup duty after everything went to shit. They aren’t a pair of symbiotic organisms anymore; Nott and Caleb are part of an ecosystem, one that relies on the other parts to continue to function.

In Xhorhas, in the Xhorhaus they’ve made their Xhorhome, Caleb and Nott (and Essek) complete the spell they’ve talked about for so long, that Nott has secretly wished for for months and openly asked for not quite as long ago. Caduceus produces a shovel, and he, Yasha, and Beau work on digging up the 50 pounds of clay asked for by the spell. Jester invites Fjord to retrieve the gem dust with her, and he reluctantly agrees. With all of the materials at hand, Caleb prepares the scene, molding the clay into the shape of an open cocoon. He places his spellbook, a hole pierced through its cover and pages, on the ground.

She stands, nervous, as does he, but he reaches down and reassures her, comforts her fears, and love swells in her heart. And oh, she cannot help this.

“You ready?”

She kisses him.

“Thank you, Caleb, for getting me this far, and for devoting yourself to - to me. You’re a good man, and I hope you find where you’re going, too.” She breathes in. “Alright. Do the thing.”

His hard look turns soft, and he cups her face.

_“This will be our best trick yet."_

**Author's Note:**

> (title from "notos" by the oh hellos)
> 
> the original modern literature moment stuck in my head from the moment i saw it, and when they pulled it out again 50 episodes later i went bananas. "modern literature" is my tumblr tag for these two, so there was no doubt in my mind that i had to write about it. but then, as these things tend to do, as i went along i ended up writing about caleb and nott's relationship to the mighty nein, mostly, and then i threw in a revethify for good measure, and i have a very different beast to where i started


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